Allergy season in full swing as pollen count in Fall River skyrockets

Trees are pouring pollen into the atmosphere at a prodigious rate right now. Maples, cedars, poplars are all ganging up on you and your nose.

Kevin P. O'Connor Herald News Staff Reporter @HNKPO

FALL RIVER — Every morning, your car is a darker shade of dusty yellow when you get up to go to work.

And you are sneezing, sniffling, wheezing.

Wondering if you are especially beleaguered by spring allergies?

Well, yes, you are.

Trees are pouring pollen into the atmosphere at a prodigious rate right now. Maples, cedars, poplars are all ganging up on you and your nose.

“First of all, it is spring,” said Dr. Donald Accetta, an allergist and pediatrician at Allergy and Asthma Care, 101 Industrial Park Road, Taunton. “Some trees are heavily pollinating right now.

“Now that the weather is nice, all that pollen is getting into the air.”

How much pollen?

According to allergy information site pollen.com, Fall River has been in the high range for pollen for days and will remain there at least through the next few days.

The highest pollen count recorded in the United States on Monday was in Allentown, Pennsylvania, at 11.8 on a scale of 1 to 12. Fall River was tied for highest, also at a level of 11.8. In Cape Girardeau, Missouri, which had the lowest pollen count, it was 0.8.

So, unless you are ready to fly to Missouri, your best bet right now is to deal with the pollen. There are ways, Accetta said.

“Keep the windows closed and turn on the air conditioning,” he said. “If it is cool out, just turn the fan on. That filters the air.

“Antihistamines are great, especially the non-drowsy ones.”

Steroid nasal sprays are also available now without a prescription.

“If you are doing all those things and your lifestyle is still inhibited by sinus problems, you might want to see an allergist,” Accetta said.

Tom Kory, the owner and operator of Standard Pharmacy, 246 E. Main St., first noticed the symptoms of seasonal allergies last weekend, when it finally stopped raining.

“People came in to refill their allergy prescriptions,” Kory said. “I have people who get their Flonase nasal inhalers only once or twice a year, when the pollen is bad. They are all coming in.

“I restocked the shelves. I made sure I had plenty of allergy remedies out there.”

There are lots: nasal sprays to clean your nose passages, eyelid wipes to clean the outside of the eyelid and eye drops to get the other side. Pills, powders, sprays.

Trees are the most muscular pollinators. We are reaching our annual peak for airborne pollen, but we aren’t out of the woods: Perennial grasses and plants will begin pollinating soon. Then annual flowers, grasses and weeds will follow. Pollen will flow until we get a hard frost next fall.

There is plenty of information out there about allergies. Pollen.com is one website. Allergy and Asthma Care also offers a tutorial on wheezing and sneezing on its website, maallergy.com.

And take heart, even if you can’t take a deep breath. This will end.

“This is the season,” Kory said. “We’ll get through it.”

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